Austromancy
by tenaciousThaumaturge
Summary: John Egbert really can't figure transfiguration out, featuring snarky teenagers interacting with each other.
1. Chapter 1: Airstream

John's transfiguration textbook closed with a thud. This was getting ridiculous.

As one of the few first-generation wizards to be accepted into Becknel Academy via the lottery program, you'd think they would at least offer some kind of tutoring if he fell behind. John had already went to the transfiguration teacher for help and all he got was a reminder to 'make sure to read the chapter again more thoroughly this time'. He packed up his books and left the library. The thought had crossed his mind to ask Dave for help, but he was already busy with his own work, and even though he was passing John doubted he could explain the material very well. It was all really frustrating. Not even five months ago had he been introduced to magic and suddenly he was expected to keep up with everyone. Asking someone else for help was John's last resort, but he had exhausted all his other options.

John took his time walking to the girls' dorms, knowing it was partly in an effort to stall. He had asked around and apparently everyone he talked to pointed him towards the same person, who unfortunately happened to be in a different transfiguration class. He exited the tall school building and followed the path to the dorms. What's the worst that could happen? Even if she didn't agree to tutor him she wouldn't exactly murder him for asking. Worst case scenario John planned to pace around the upper year dorms until someone finally took pity on him enough to explain this damned match to needle thing to him. Finally at the dorms, he wandered around with the piece of parchment he had scribbled her name on. Breathing a sigh of relief after a few minutes he raised his hand and softly knocked on the door. There were a few moments of silence, then the sound of someone shuffling around before the door swung open.

"Can I help you?" asked Rose. John was oddly surprised to see her in normal pyjamas. He thought maybe wizards had some sort of weird sleeping wear given that they just wore robes all day.

"Uh yeah you're, you're Rose Lalonde right?" he asked.

She shot him an incredulous look and pointed at the name on her door.

"I'm assuming you can read otherwise I'd recommend making the staff aware of that, Egbert."

"You know my name? You know what don't answer that actually. Look," he said, stopping his fidgeting to look at her, "I need help with transfiguration, and everyone says you're the best in our year."

"I'm quite flattered but what makes you think I have time to teach it? Or that I'm qualified to at that," she asked.

"Please? I can do magic I swear it's just the theory I can't keep up wit-"

She raised her hand to stop him.

"I'm well aware. Did you know that you're among the top five in our year at charms? You don't have to impress me," she paused, "I can make you a deal."

John's expression rose at that. Maybe he wouldn't do so bad in class this year after all.

"Name it," he said.

"I help you with your transfiguration and you help me study ahead in charms," she said.

"I haven't exactly studied ahead..." he said sheepishly.

"I didn't expect you to, but if you agree then you're going to go through advanced material with me. So, do you agree?" she asked.

"Yeah! Definitely, thank you!" he answered, grinning.

"Meet me at the library Wednesday after class," she said, a small smile playing on her lips, "consider this a sort of alliance."

She closed the door and John hurried back to his room before curfew began. An alliance, he had an alliance with Rose Lalonde.

* * *

Wednesday rolled around and John found himself hurrying to the library for his transfiguration lesson. The worst thing he could do right now was be late for their first meeting.

Rose was already sitting at one of the tables when he got there. It turns out she wasn't as intimidating as she seemed, especially not while she was so focused on trying to explain their lessons. She went through the theory with John, correcting his notes and clearing up a few things the teachers had simply assumed he already knew. Even though this was a 'progressive' American school it seemed the teachers just weren't as prepared as they should be for kids who came from a non-magical background. She took her time explaining which syllables he had to put emphasis on for each spell and how wide he should wave his wand depending on the area of the transfiguration. Overall, it went better than John thought it would.

"Here," she said, placing a match on the table, "I'd advise you not to set this on fire, especially here."

"I can do this," he said, still unsure of whether or not he could do it.

Rose motioned for him to go ahead and with a deep breath he went through the wand motions, making sure to put the emphasis in the proper places. Sure enough, his matchstick smoothly changed into a sharp silver needle. She picked it up and examined it, then placed it back on the table with a grin.

"I can't think of anything you could've done better," she told him.

"Wait really? That was it?" he asked, surprised. She nodded.

"I'll go through all of your spells with you as the year goes on to make sure your movements and pronunciation are right, but that's it for now."

"Huh," he said, "how do you know all this anyways?"

Rose leaned back in her chair.

"I've always been fascinated by the idea of transfiguration," she said "that you are not exactly one thing or another, just blank canvas. You can conjure something out of nothing and vanish an object into nothing, so it stands to reason you have the potential to be anything."

"That's one way to think of it," he said.

"Enough talk of philosophy," she said, bringing out her charms book, "now you have to keep up your end of the bargain."

* * *

"Mister Egbert!"

John jumped, sitting up straighter in his chair. He had been daydreaming in class again, and Mr. Robell didn't appreciate it much.

"If you feel like you're too good to pay attention in my class, why don't you demonstrate the spell we've been working on this week. Matchstick to needle."

John scrambled to get his wand. It took him a moment to focus on everything he had worked on the day before, but it was easy to repeat once he did it right once. Readying himself, he cast the spell and watch his matchstick transform into a needle.

Mr. Robell actually looked surprised for a moment before schooling his features again.

"At least try to look like you're paying attention," he said before walking off.

"Okay how the fuck did you do that?" asked Dave as soon as the teacher was out of hearing range.

"What do you mean?"

"Who are you and what have you done to John Egbert? Last time you tried this you tinted it grey," Dave argued.

"Okay so, I've been getting lessons," John admitted, "I asked someone to tutor me."

Dave went back to taking notes as the teacher walked by again.

"Who's tutoring you?" he whispered.

"I asked Lalonde," he whispered back, looking back at the teacher to make sure he wasn't too close.

"As in Rose Lalonde?! Are you out of your damn mind Egbert?"

"What? What's wrong with Rose?" John asked defensively.

"The entire First Transitional class is scared of her, including me. Rumor has it she's hexed someone already."

"So? She's not a future Dark Lady, Dave. She asked me to help her with her charms work," John explained.

"She what? Lalonde is taking charms advice from _you_?" Dave asked, surprised. "Now I've got to see this."

* * *

"Yes?" Rose asked as she opened the door.

"Yeah is this Lalonde tutoring services because-" Dave started, but Rose slammed the door shut with an irritated look on her face.

"Rose, he's with me!" he called out.

Slowly, the door opened again with Rose standing there looking exasperated.

"I didn't say you could bring guests," she said slowly.

"I know I know but Dave wanted to tag along, he won't interrupt. Right Dave?"

"What am I, a puppy?" he asked, annoyed.

Rose pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. Closing the door behind her, she motioned them to follow.

"They're not letting us cast spells in the library so we're going somewhere else today."

John rarely took this path at all. It started at the girls' dorms and ended, if he remembered right, somewhere near the greenhouses. He tried to keep up with Rose's pace through the unfamiliar path but she seemed to know it like the back of her hand. Dave was to his left, and from what John could see just as confused as him.

"Where are we going?" asked Dave.

"A study room," Rose replied curtly.

"Yes but where is it?" he followed up.

"Why are you asking so many questions?" she countered. "We're here anyways."

John looked around, but the spot Rose has stopped seemed like the rest of the path. For that matter, it looked like the rest of the school grounds in general: perfectly manicured grass, and dirt paths covered by overgrown trees. Rose kneeled down next to one of the trees and looked almost as if she was turning an invisible key in its trunk. With a groan, the tree lifted itself up to reveal an archway into the building behind it.

"My friend showed me this a few weeks ago, she has a bit of an affinity for plants," she said in an oddly soft tone of voice.

"You have friends?" Dave asked in mock surprise and Rose shot him a glare.

"Do you want to be here or not Strider?"

Dave threw his hands up.

"Sure. Follow the future dark lady into the forest and step in her evil tree lair. Nothing wrong with that plan."

Rose rolled her eyes and motioned them in. Setting taking out her books on one of the tables in the room, she quickly got started where they left off last time.

* * *

A/N: I am a serious author who's writing a serious fanfiction with serious dialogue, as opposed to an awful mess of snarky teenage bullshit.

But really, I'm writing this more to get back in the habit of writing than anything else. I don't have a set plot in mind or an update schedule or anything of the sort so if that's what you're looking for I'm sorry.


	2. Chapter 2: Turbulence

By the end of October, Dave became less of an observer in John and Rose's sessions and started following along and even contributing on occasion. John suspected the two of them had grown on Rose, although the one time he brought it up her only response was 'quite like devil's snare'. The three of them had taken to sitting together for meals, and the initially awkward alliance had turned more into a budding friendship.

John and Dave hurried to the lecture hall, only a few minutes before class was due to start. Mondays for Becknel's First Transitional class was reserved for History of Magic. The class, taught by Mrs. Claustro, was a weekly four-hour lecture for their entire grade level, unlike any of their other classes. Most of the student body, John included, found it difficult to concentrate for long stretches of time on one subject, which made History of Magic one of the most unpopular classes taught at the school. The two found Rose among the crowd, sitting besides a girl with long black hair and round glasses, and navigated their way through the maze of students in the lecture hall to take a seat besides them.

"Glad you could make it," Rose said and turned to the other girl, "these are the two I was telling you about."

"Oh I know Dave! He's in my potions class," said Jade.

"Nice to see you again Harley," said Dave.

"John, this is Jade Harley," said Rose, "Jade, this is John Egbert."

John waved at Jade and started setting up his supplies, including his ink bottle and the quill he was still getting used to writing with.

The teacher walked in, a short woman with red hair and a narrow face, her blue robes stood out among the sea of black robes and hats. An hour into the lesson and John couldn't help but notice that practically nobody was actually paying attention to her lecture, not that she seemed to notice or care. He could barely make out what Rose was drawing on her parchment but he could've sworn he saw tentacles and at least one worryingly dark symbol. Closer to him was Jade, who looked half-asleep and had already managed to cover hers with doodles of flowers and drawings of her with dog ears. His own parchment was predictably empty with only a few words quickly scrawled on with little context. Finally to his right Dave was... actually taking notes?

"Are you actually writing all this down?" John asked in a hushed tone. His comment had gotten Rose's attention, who turned to stare at Dave's paper in surprise.

"Uh, yeah?" he said, confused.

"Dave, look around. You're basically the only one," John said, motioning to the rest of the hall.

"I just find it interesting," he argued, "besides, one of us needs to take notes on this so I might as well."

"Funny, I wasn't aware you knew how to write," Rose said, going back to her doodles as if she had just made a completely innocent remark.

"Hilarious, Lalonde. Have you considered doing stand-up comedy?" Dave shot back.

"Hush you two, you'll get Mrs. Claustro's attention," Jade admonished, but softly.

* * *

The next time they met up at the greenhouse study room Jade joined them as well, although that didn't meet nearly the same amount of resistance as when Dave first attended the lessons. Jade mainly kept to herself, going over what looked like a No-Maj physics book. Turns out she was in John's defense class as well. When they were done for the day Jade opened up the entrance again and let them out. Rose and Jade took the path to the girls' dorms while John and Dave walked the way around the greenhouses.

Hanging out with all of them was different. Dave, Jade, and Rose all had very different personalities but they all managed to work together somehow. He couldn't read Dave's expression when they were all together, but if he had a problem with Rose or Jade he hadn't mentioned it to John. The two walked back to the area with their year level's rooms.

"So Halloween is tomorrow. Do you think wizards do anything different for Halloween?" asked Dave.

"No clue, I haven't heard anything about special wizard traditions. There's the dinner tomorrow after classes though," John replied.

The two were almost at John's room when they saw someone moved around the corner between two of the rooms. Their dorms were rows of five or so grouped together around an area with a few tables, Dave had likened it to a motel once. John hadn't been able to get a good look at the person, but they were quite tall.

"That wasn't a first year," whispered Dave.

"They were probably just a teacher passing through right?" asked John.

"Yeah, maybe, I don't know. This place isn't exactly on the way to anything else," said Dave.

"It's not like the dorms are off-limits to anyone, Dave," said John.

"You're right, I just get a little paranoid around now. Halloween always gives me a weird vibe," they paused in front of John's door, "well, I better to my room. See you tomorrow."

"See you," said John, his voice quiet. Maybe Dave was right about Halloween, John couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

* * *

John woke up the next day to loud banging on his door. He could hear loud voices outside, the sound muffled by the charms places around the dorms. Still in his pyjamas, John hopped out of bed and answered the door to find Jade standing outside looking shaken. It was barely even light outside, the sun still not in the sky.

"We need to go, now!" she said, grabbing his arm and dragging him out.

"Wait what's going on?" he asked, scrambling to keep up.

Jade grabbed his arm and pointed it up. Over the barely-lit sky was a giant black symbol John didn't recognize.

"Got it? Now we run!" she said, tugging him towards the school building. A couple of more students from upper years had noticed it too, one of them was holding what looked like a flashing spinning top. Once they were both safely in the school's main hall, Jade and John took a seat at one of the tables.

"What was that?" asked John, trying to catch his breath.

"A mark, the kind dark wizards use," she said, "we should be safer here."

John looked around, the hall was mostly empty save for a few of the students he had seen earlier.

"Where's Rose? Why didn't we go get Dave wh-"

Jade raised a hand to stop him.

"Rose said she'd go get Dave and tell a teacher while I woke you up," she said.

Just then, a loud alarm sounded across the hall. John wasn't sure if that was just the schools's general alarm or if they had a special dark wizard alarm. Students started filing in the hall, bringing with them more gossip and chatter than usual. Considering the giant floating black whatever that was in the sky, they seemed to be handling it pretty well. Remembering what day it was, he turned and wished Jade a happy halloween just in time to see Dave and Rose rush in from the class hallways. Dave came over and sat with them while Rose went to stand beside a window, pen and notebook in hand. Jade shot Dave a questioning look.

"The principal said the mark belonged to any dark lord that he knew of, so she wanted to sketch it," he explained.

"Are you okay?" asked John.

"Yeah. That sure was one way to wake up though," he replied, his voice trailing off.

Rose joined them again a few minutes later, setting her notebook down on the table for all of them to see.

"Do any of you recognize this?" she asked, taking a seat. The three of them shook their heads and Rose withdrew her notebook back into her bag.

It was odd sitting together in their nightclothes, like they were taking part in the world's most messed-up sleepover. The principal came in a few minutes later to announce that they were searching the premises and that all students were to stay in the hall until further notice. Jade tried to strike up a conversation and soon it changed, in the strange way that conversations did, to the topic of dogs and eventually pets in general. By the time one of the staff announced that it was safe to go back to their rooms, they were discussing the merits of owning a toad, an issue that split their group in two.

* * *

Classes went on as usual, and by the time the halloween dinner started most of the student body had already forgotten about the now-vanished mark in the sky in favor of focusing on the school's celebrations. It was definitely a weird experience for John, where his classmates' usual attire of plain black robes and a pointy hat looked much more like a group costume when surrounded by enchanted fake bats and jack-o'-lanterns. The older students were definitely having the most fun that night though, messing around with much more advanced magic.

Halfway through the evening a group of seniors starting singing some old song about ghosts and at that point the staff gave up on trying to do anything about it. All around John students were laughing and enjoying themselves, he didn't think he's ever seen the school this way before. John was drawn out of his thoughts by Dave trying to cast a spell.

"I told you, it's leviOsa, not levioSA," said Jade, giggling.

"I wasn't going to let those juniors over there have all the fun," he replied.

"Well you should at least do it right," said Rose.

"Why don't you try it then?" asked Dave.

Before Rose even had a chance to try, John waved his wand and sent Dave's hat flying into the air.

"Hey! I thought you were on my side here!" the now hatless Dave protested, trying to reach for it. Before he knew it, John's own hat was also in the air.

"I wasn't about to let you upstage me," said Rose.

The whole table dissolved into laughter as they tried to see who could levitate the other's hate the best, and by the time curfew rolled around at least one of them had almost caught fire while another was hit by a stray color change charm, turning it orange. If nothing else, halloweens as Becknel never failed to live up to their reputation.

* * *

A/N: Somehow this story is starting to develop a plot and perhaps even a mind of its own. I will keep you updated on that.


	3. Chapter 3: Whirlwind

"I told you there's something weird about halloweens," said Dave.

The four of them were sitting at their table, that morning's edition of the _Daily Wizarding World News_ in the middle with that day's headline being "ESCAPED MURDERER SIRIUS BLACK BREACHES HOGWARTS DEFENSES".

"For once, I think you might be right," mumbled Rose, neck deep in coffee and sleep deprivation.

"Do you think that's related to what happened here yesterday?" asked John.

"If it is, it's probably just some wannabe dark wizard emulating Lord Voldemort," she replied.

"Lord whatnow?" asked Dave, and John was equally as confused. Jade and Rose stared at them before sharing a look.

"Right, first generation wizards, I forgot," said Rose.

"Lord Voldemort was a dark lord in England," Jade explained, "you could probably find out more in the library, but all you need to know is that he was defeated on halloween. So if anyone wanted to, say, take over where he left off..." she trailed off.

Rose frowned and picked up the newspaper.

"Is there really nothing here about yesterday?" she muttered. "Ah yes, page five, alongside rising cauldron prices in Canada," she finished in a deadpan.

John picked at his food. Jade and Rose talked about dark wizards much more casually than he was used to. Not that the concept of evil people doing bad things was new to him at all, just that the thought of those evil people having access to all kinds of magical tools was more unsettling.

"Did they find out what the mark meant?" he asked Rose.

She shook her head. "If they did they haven't told anyone yet."

While she and Dave were in the middle of a conversation, an brown owl swooped down and landed on Jade's shoulder. She untied the heavy-looking package from its leg and gave it some of her food before it flew off again. Opening the package, she set aside a thick textbook and started reading one of the letters included with it.

"Any news?" asked John.

"Grandpa's just telling me to stay safe," she said, "oh Rose! This is for you!" She handed the other girl an envelope.

"Thank you, I'm afraid reading about our guardians' latest trip will have to wait," said Rose, looking up at the clock at the end of the hall. "First period is in ten minutes."

"Oh that's defense right? Hell yeah," said Dave, standing up, "ready to lose again Lalonde?"

"For the last time, you firing sparks at me while the teacher is looking away isn't dueling," said Rose, moving to join him.

"No, but it is fun," he replied, "and mock my sparks all you want, I'm still better than you at defense." Their conversation continued in the distance as they walked out of the main hall.

"What do we have, Herbology?" John asked Jade.

"Mhm! We should probably get going too," she replied, stuffing whatever textbook she got in the mail into her bag. Somehow.

* * *

John couldn't shake the feeling that he was forgetting something. It had been bothering him all day but now, halfway through Potions class, everything else took a backseat to the nagging feeling in his mind that something important was just at the tip of his tongue.

Only half paying attention, he started crushing the snake fangs into a power. It definitely wasn't some kind of homework assignment. Even if he wasn't as organised as say, Jade, he still wrote all his assignments down.

John handed the pestle of crushed snake fangs off to Dave as he started heating up the cauldron.

He had made sure not to forget anything he needed for today's classes, so that wasn't it either. This was starting to get a little frustrating. Had he forgotten to lock his door per school policy? Well even if he had, it's not like he left anything valuable in there and no one would make rounds to check anyways.

He saw Dave add the horned slugs out of the corner of his eye. Dave, was it something to do with Dave?

Just as John was about to add the porcupine quills in, it came back to him. _The figure._ He and Dave had seen someone on the way back to their rooms before Halloween! And that was just before someone cast a mark into the sky. With this sudden realisation, John dropped the quills into the potion at once, just a few moments before Dave had managed to completely take the cauldron off the fire.

The effect was instantaneous. John and Dave managed to duck as the initial explosion happened, but the potion managed to melt through their cauldron and started leaking onto the floor. Their teacher Mr. Warnick, a no-nonsense man with a long face and greying hair, walked over to vanish the potion before it could get too out of hand.

"We've been going over the theory and instructions behind potion-making for months now, if you can't get a simple cure for boils right I'm afraid you're wasting your time in my class," he said.

"Sorry sir, I was distracted," John mumbled.

"Distracted? You can't afford to be distracted when the reactions in here could cause serious injury if not executed properly! Detention mister Egbert, and ten points off your class score," he said and turned to look at Dave, "Two points off, mister Strider. Make sure to pay attention to what your partner is doing".

Becknel's class score system was how it earned its reputation for being one of the nation's most competitive magical schools. Points were given and taken away based on how well the student did, and the final tally was how the school determined a student's rank in certain classes. Of course, teachers all awarded points differently, but most of them only gave points for anything above the expectations of the normal class curriculum, like executing a spell early or near-perfectly. Currently though this was the least of John Egbert's concerns.

As soon as class let out John pulled Dave aside.

"The day before the mark was up we saw someone near the dorms that didn't look like they should be there," John whispered.

"You think they did it?" asked Dave.

"I don't know but I think it's worth mentioning to the principal," he replied, worried.

"Yeah, you're right," said Dave, "we can go tonight before dinner."

"That would work except I have detention then," John reminded him.

"Shit, okay. Tomorrow. We go tomorrow."

* * *

John's detention took place in the upstairs potion lab, where most of the older students had their lessons. Located on the school's fourth floor, it was a wide room with controls for everything from the place's temperature to its light level to which direction all the brewing stations were facing at the time. Advanced potion making was a subject that John thought he'd never truly understand. While the desks were on a rotating platform, the walls of the room were very much stationary with potion vials and ingredient lining the walls. His detention involved mopping the floor, although since he didn't misbehave or purposefully disrupt the class it didn't have to be supervised as long as his task was done.

Even a while into his detention, John couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious figure he had seen before, and the fact that there really might've been a dark wizard on the grounds of his school started setting in.

When he was almost done cleaning the room, the lighting started flickering. John thought the control panel must've malfunctioned so he went to take a look at it, but before he could the floor beneath him started spinning. The entire room plunged into darkness as John struggled not to fall off the now spinning potions room floor. There was something really wrong here.

The lights turned back on and now in bold black letters on the wall the word 'HUSH' was written, although the spinning didn't exactly make it very easy to read.

Darkness surrounded John again for a moment, then without warning the lights turned on and the floor stopped spinning, sending John flying into the nearest wall with sensitive and potentially deadly potions ingredients. John braced himself for the impact, but after a few seconds he realized that he hadn't crashed into anything. Now that he thought about it, John didn't think he even crashed into the floor.

John opened his eyes to find that he was floating in the air a few inches away from the wall. He moved up and down gently, as if flying on merely a breeze. Staring at his hands in shock, John felt his energy draining away and did... something? He wasn't sure exactly _what_ he did but whatever it was put him back down on the floor. John ran a hand through his hair and adjusted his glasses, making sure they weren't broken. The letters on the wall were gone but their message had definitely sunk in.

 _What was that?_

* * *

Shaken but physically fine, John made his way down to the main hall for dinner. Too much had happened in detention and it hadn't quite yet sunk in. Someone was after him, someone knew that he would tell, and someone was in that room with him completely unseen. And there was also that bit of magic he did that stopped him from hitting the wall. It wasn't true wandless magic, it couldn't have been. It was most likely another bit of accidental magic like the type he used to do as a little kid, but this was different. He could control it to some extent and he kept it up a few moments after the immediate danger had passed, so just what was it?

John took a seat between Dave and Rose at their table just as the principal stood up at the front of the hall. Any conversations going on had stopped as the short wizard in deep green robes cleared his throat.

"Please listen, as this will involve each and every one of you," he started, "as you know, Becknel Academy operates under the rules created by our very own American Ministry of Magical Education. Since the ministry was founded our school system involved six years of mandatory magical education. However, the curriculum has recently been evaluated and found to be lacking compared to most other magical nations. Starting this year, the ministry is transitioning to the British testing program, meaning OWLs and NEWTs." He paused as chatter erupted throughout the hall and motioned them to quiet down again.

"Seniors will sit a make-up OWL exam instead of their midterms and are encouraged not to return home this holiday season since they have twice the material to go through before NEWTs this summer. Juniors are scheduled to take their OWL tests instead of their finals. Sophomores will have until the end of this year to go through OWL-level material before testing and are similarly encouraged to remain at school over the holidays. Freshmen, as well as First and Second Transitional students should only notice a faster pace in their classes."

To say the students weren't happy was an understatement. Juniors and seniors were almost screaming, having had their workload effectively doubled.

"I understand that this will not be an easy transition, however we have very little choice in the matter. Let me take this time to remind you once again that Becknel prides itself on being a competitive magical academy. If you intend on staying in this school then you will work for it, given that the bottom five rule is still in effect."

Becknel's controversial 'bottom five rule' stated that the five students with the lowest overall class rank would not be allowed to stay at the school, either transferring to another private school or into the public school system. The principal went back to his seat but the students couldn't stop talking, most of them worried.

"This little study group of ours might be more useful than I had originally anticipated," said Rose, breaking the silence at their table.

"And here I thought First Transitional was supposed to be a quiet year to get used to this place," said Dave.

"Haha, yeah" John chuckled nervously, "it hasn't exactly been a normal school year so far."

"It's a magic school, I don't think they have normal years," Jade laughed.

"I don't know about the rest of you but I don't intend on being one of the five of our year to get kicked out," said Rose.

"I don't either," said John.

"If all of us work together there's nothing we can't do" said Jade, "wait, was that too corny?"

"Kind of, yeah," said Dave, a small smile on his face.

"Corny as it may sound, it works," said Rose, "as long as at least one of us is good enough at each class to be able to explain the concepts we should easily be able to pass at least this year."

"Yeah!" said John.

Suddenly remembering the incident from before, John had an idea. All impulse control out the window, he tried to focus that same sensation of floating on an object, more specifically Rose's hat. It was tougher this time, he met more resistance as the air around him felt still and stifled, but the witch's hat was blown right off her head. She grabbed it before it could get too far as John sat there, shocked. He didn't actually think it would work.

"What was that?" she asked, looking around.

"Probably just the breeze," John said.

* * *

A/N: The quality of this chapter could've been matched by me dropping a bouncy ball on my keyboard with autocorrect on.

Also, I have come to the disturbing realization that people are actually reading this.

Please know that I do appreciate the reviews and constructive criticism but the point of this was more along the lines of 'write X words a week with no expectation of it to be _good_ writing' so I don't know how much of my time I'll actually spend improving my style and/or pacing. Well, at least for this story that is. I'm sure I'll internalize at least some of them for any of my future stories so thank you.


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